Michael Flynn

Michael Flynn (24 December 1958-) was Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency from 24 July 2012 to 7 August 2014 (succeeding Ronald L. Burgess Jr. and preceding David Shedd) and US National Security Advisor from 23 January to 13 February 2017 (succeeding Susan Rice and preceding H.R. McMaster).

Biography
Michael Flynn was born in Middletown, Rhode Island in 1958, and he was commissioned as a lieutenant in the US Army military intelligence corps in 1981. He deployed for Operation Urgent Fury in Grenada in 1983 and Operation Uphold Democracy in Haiti in 1993, and he became director of intelligence for JSOC in 2004, serving until 2007. He then served as director of intelligence for CENTCOM from 2007 to 2008, for the Joint Staff from 2008 to 2009, and for the ISAF from 2009 to 2010. In 2012, he took command of the Defense Intelligence Agency, and, in 2013, he became the first US intelligence officer allowed inside the GRU headquarters in Moscow. He clashed with Barack Obama's administration due to their narrative that al-Qaeda was on the brink of defeat, and he criticized Obama for his delay in supporting the Syrian opposition during the Syrian Civil War, as it allowed for the growth of the al-Nusra Front and other extremist forces. He was pressed into retirement in 2014, and he opened his own consulting firm, providing intelligence services for businesses and governments such as Turkey. Flynn became a senior adviser to Donald Trump during the 2016 presidential election, and he met with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak to discuss Trump's possible future lifting of sanctions on Russia before Trump was elected President, meaning that Russia was colluding with Trump's campaign. From January to February 2017, he served as National Security Advisor for just 24 days, and he was forced to resign when the FBI discovered that he had lied about the nature and content of his meetings with Kislyak. Sentencing of Flynn was deferred several times, and he agreed to work with Robert Mueller's investigation against Trump and his campaign.